Royal Society tells ministers to justify plan to cull badgers

There is no scientific evidence to support the government's proposed cull of thousands of badgers - despite claims by ministers that it will prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis, the Royal Society said in a statement yesterday.

If the government decided to go ahead, it should come up with non-scientific reasons for doing so. "The basis normally for such an extreme action would be evidential," said David Read, a vice-president of the society.

"The scientific evidence is really inadequate to justify it. If you wish to proceed, you therefore have to justify it on other economic, political or social grounds."

It is illegal to kill badgers, but the government is planning to cull thousands in an attempt to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis, an illness which each year kills 23,000 cattle and costs the taxpayer an estimated £35m.

The government says badgers are a vector for the disease, spreading it among cattle by contaminating their food. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a decision based on consultation, which concluded last month, would be made in due course.

Prof Read said: "There are two mechanisms for the transmission of this disease. One is from wildlife, in which case the badgers are certainly the most important potential source.

"The other mechanism is cattle to cattle transfer. We're trying to decide which is likely to be the most important."

Extensive movement of cattle herds across the country has been known to cause epidemics in the past, leading to outbreaks in areas previously clear. So far, small studies where badgers have been culled show mixed results, with culling both decreasing and increasing the spread of bovine TB.

The best hypothesis for this paradox is that attacking groups of badgers is rarely 100% successful, and the surviving members of the community spread into new areas. "You actually spread the disease rather than control it," said Prof Read.

Part of Defra's plan is to cull the badgers in several large areas of at least 300 sq km, or 118 sq miles, at the same time, but this raises concerns over the conservation status of the animals.

The difficulty is working with badgers because of their nocturnal habits and the fact that they live underground. There is no effective way to vaccinate the animals against TB, and they are also highly dispersed across the country.

The Royal Society said that alternatives were keeping badgers away from cattle and limiting contact between herds to reduce the spread of bovine TB. Prof Read added that vaccinating badgers against TB and eradicating it in the wild would be the best solution.

But he admitted that such treatments needed research and were at least 10 years away.